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Fender Bronco grounding issue

Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:52 pm
by boredinclass
My Bronco buzzes like crazy when I have my hands off any metal parts. I have a wire soldered on the vol pot to underneath the bridge, a wire soldered from the vol pot to tone pot, and another wire soldered from the tone to jack ground. Anybody have any suggestions on how I solve this problem? Thanks!

Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 11:30 pm
by Pens
Is the bridge ground intact?

Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 11:58 pm
by boredinclass
Pens wrote:Is the bridge ground intact?
Yeah I think so, the wire is new and is soldered onto the bridge and vol pot pretty well. But there was some old solder on the bridge before that had a harder time melting, could that cause a bad connection?

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 12:40 am
by cur
Is there other shielding? Body cavity or pick guard? Use voltmeter to check ground to bridge if in question.

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:12 am
by boredinclass
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 1:32 pm
by cur
try shielding the entire pickguard and then make sure that it is grounded to the rest of the stuff. you can do this easily by taping some tin/aluminum foil to the back of the pickguard and then grounding it to one of your pots. make sure it touches the shielding that is already there. you could try this with the body cavity. you can buy that adhesive copper for the body cavity as well.

but if you think it is a bad solder joint/wire. you could make a temporary jumper wire to ground everything that should be grounded together and see if that solves it.

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:47 am
by boredinclass
cur wrote:try shielding the entire pickguard and then make sure that it is grounded to the rest of the stuff. you can do this easily by taping some tin/aluminum foil to the back of the pickguard and then grounding it to one of your pots. make sure it touches the shielding that is already there. you could try this with the body cavity. you can buy that adhesive copper for the body cavity as well.

but if you think it is a bad solder joint/wire. you could make a temporary jumper wire to ground everything that should be grounded together and see if that solves it.
Thanks for the reply, I'm confused though, how do you ground the shielding to the pot? Just tape it over the back and make sure it touches the old shielding?
Also how do you make a temporary jumper wire?

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 2:50 pm
by cur
boredinclass
Thanks for the reply, I'm confused though, how do you ground the shielding to the pot?
*Well if any of the foil is touching the threaded post od the pot it will be grounded.

Just tape it over the back and make sure it touches the old shielding?
*Yes, that should do for temporary.

Also how do you make a temporary jumper wire?
*Any thin wire that you can make contact with the grounded parts however you can. Tape? You can even make it visible just so you know there is contact. You are just testing for for breaks in existing writes.

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 6:47 pm
by iCEByTes
looks like ur joints are bad

try remove the joints , use Sand paper , sand a spot , clean it whit alchool , dry and try do joint over there.

Re: Fender Bronco grounding issue

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 9:11 pm
by NickS
boredinclass wrote:My Bronco buzzes like crazy when I have my hands off any metal parts. I have a wire soldered on the vol pot to underneath the bridge, a wire soldered from the vol pot to tone pot, and another wire soldered from the tone to jack ground. Anybody have any suggestions on how I solve this problem? Thanks!
It's just the Bronco, no other guitars?

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:41 pm
by boredinclass
cur wrote:boredinclass
Thanks for the reply, I'm confused though, how do you ground the shielding to the pot?
*Well if any of the foil is touching the threaded post od the pot it will be grounded.

Just tape it over the back and make sure it touches the old shielding?
*Yes, that should do for temporary.

Also how do you make a temporary jumper wire?
*Any thin wire that you can make contact with the grounded parts however you can. Tape? You can even make it visible just so you know there is contact. You are just testing for for breaks in existing writes.
Okay I just tested all the joints, when I put a wire to the white wire from the pickup the buzzing got worse and also when I wiggled it. None of the other joints made noise when I put wire to them so maybe I need to re solder the pickup wire?

Re: Fender Bronco grounding issue

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:44 pm
by boredinclass
NickS wrote:
boredinclass wrote:My Bronco buzzes like crazy when I have my hands off any metal parts. I have a wire soldered on the vol pot to underneath the bridge, a wire soldered from the vol pot to tone pot, and another wire soldered from the tone to jack ground. Anybody have any suggestions on how I solve this problem? Thanks!
It's just the Bronco, no other guitars?
Nope just the Bronco buzzes

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:48 pm
by boredinclass
Also if this is important, the guitar went completely silent when I put wire to the white pickup wire to the bridge

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:53 pm
by othomas2
It's pretty normal that a guitar buzzes when you take your hand off anything metal... just means it is grounded correctly. Are sitting near the amp ? Computers / lighting / power supplies ? ... try reducing the treble / reverb. Any improvements ? Wiring / circuitry ok ? A little extra shielding might help... but I reckon it's just a noisy p/up and/or your surroundings playing a part. Any chance of a youtube clip of the problem ?

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:55 pm
by Pens
Yeah, resolder that white wire. Also might want to check that splice there on that wire, there could be something dodgy with the solder there also.

It went silent when you shorted the white wire to bridge because you grounded out the pickup. That's a good thing, it's supposed to do that. That's how mute buttons/switches are done.

But I'd say you should be good if you redo that white signal wire from the pickup, sounds like that's your issue. Good luck!